I’ll be out of the house fishing, golfing and come home and its like walking into a full blown concert. My 2 chl system is way past 80 db and she is just grooving away. 
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I’m testing bookshelf speakers in a similar scenario and was surprised by how loud I can go before the dBs reach a disturbing level. I measure SPL with my phone/watch, and rarely break 80 dB, but often run closer to 60-70 dB. The staging crushes headphones while the volume is faint from 20 feet away. Speakers become part of their environment so careful locations, angles, and room acoustics matter a lot. Bass is what carries.
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I should measure what I use in the office. Never played it very loud, but it started to sound very very good at medium levels. Consider some of Santana’s Africa Speaks for speaker test content.
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You recommended the Santana - Africa Speaks Album to me a while back @pennstac. It’s become one of my favourite albums of late. It really is excellent.
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Been a Santana fan for many years, and finally got to see them just before the Africa Speaks album. They were clearly doing some of the material. Aside from the sheer musicianship and great music, I really like this album for critical listening. It has such a variety of vocals, sounds, textures and percussion, is recorded very well, and has excellent and precise soundstage. With speakers, the imaging is fantastic. Now the soundstage was exaggerated when I saw them live, as we were in the second row center…
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The 3.5mm output could probably be used as line-level into a suitable amp for the 800 S.
If you use midi out then it’s a whole new adventure. You need something on the other end of the midi cable (DAW or virtual instrument host) and then a virtual piano instrument to turn the midi into audio. MIDI does not contain sound but rather commands for a virtual instrument so you can’t run midi to a dac.
It’s almost certain that whatever virtual piano you use will sound different than her existing piano, which leads to yet another adventure of finding a virtual piano that she likes.
Way simpler to run the 3.5mm into an amp and retain the sound of the existing piano.
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Yes, easier for sure.
The problem is that the internal piano samples sound faintly digital, flattened, and not quite authentic. The HD 58X matches their level of quality, so better headphones would be overkill even if the internal amp has the power to drive them. My thought was to get a basic MIDI to USB cable (e.g., $25), route it into my Mac, use GarageBand for its piano samples (I already have it and samples too), and then route it through my DAC to a better amp and the 800 S.
It’d sound different but better, and would have at least a remote chance of matching the potential of the 800 S. I may try it as a project, if only from curiosity. Or not.
EDIT: Fail. I just demoed the GarageBand Steinway samples for my wife through the Bifrost 2 → RebelAmp → 800 S. I used the Mac keyboard for playing notes. She said it sounds about the same as the built in Yamaha piano samples, and it’s not worth the hassle. As every sample is recorded from a mic in a fixed location next to a real instrument, we are likely nearing the limits of this recording method.
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With that playback chain you’ll be exposing the quality of the virtual piano.
The virtual pianos can be quite realistic now but they are also not cheap.
The instruments can respond to initial key press and aftertouch, simulate harmonics and resonances of the piano materials and exciting of the strings by adjacent strings.
They also have multiple mic positions that can be selected and combined, including a “normal head position” mic.
Another feature is called round-robin where every sample for every note is recorded multiple times and they are randomly selected upon pressing a key. This creates a less robotic, more 'human" feel.
A few pianos are called modeled which are done using a software model of piano physics rather than playing back recorded samples.
There is almost certainly a virtual piano that your wife would like, if you take on that project.
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Bringing the discussion back to the 800 S, this is a good example of how source quality limitations can render expensive playback hardware irrelevant. The 58X sells for 1/10th the price of the 800 S but proved to be functionally similar here (not elsewhere).
GarageBand is cheap/free and you indeed get what you pay for. The virtual pianos you describe bring to mind the photo/video enhancement software that fabricates details for low res images to make them appear to be higher quality. Perhaps the universe is just a simulation after all.
I think my wife would prefer to use a real piano rather than deal with a high-end simulator. However, who knows if that might change.
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I like to think of it as getting better at capturing reality rather than fabricating it, but in the end it’s the same as headphone selection - the only way to know is to hear it.
Last night I’ve watched the last two Star Wars movies with the HD800S (Episodes VIII and IX). It felt like going to cinema, except the bass of course. Had a great time and will certainly do it again for other movies.
Signal chain was my cheap’o portable gear: TV Optical Out -> FiiO Taishan DAC -> FiiO Q3 Line In -> HD800S balanced out.
It was also a good battery test for the little FiiO. I was able to watch both movies (~5h total) in high gain and volume knob maxed out. The only caveat was Rey’s voice, which sits around a peak in the HD800S. Hence, she was always louder than other characters. But hey, it’s Star Wars. Not much dialogues anyway. 
Cheers. 
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Took advantage of the Senn sale here and ordered an HD800S.
I’m thinking of selling my Z1R’s, as much as I enjoy them, as I’ll likely be using the HD800s for gaming, orchestral, soundtracks, classical, and so on.
And I’m patiently awaiting my Blackwood VC’s to arrive.
I get the feeling that the HD800s & VC combo is a great duo to cover just about any need/genre.
Plus, I can run both off my BH Crackatwoa 
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Thinking of finally pulling the trigger on an 800s after the near-consensus that the 8xx isn’t great. Last concern I have is the bass (or lack thereof). I’ll be running it on a bifrost/Lyr 3 (stock tubes) stack. Primary use will be movies/gaming. I have a 6xx, SR2, and Noire for music.
Can the bass be eq’d to acceptable levels for these uses? TIA!
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The HD800/S, either version, take bass shelf EQ pretty well as long as you don’t over do it. The standard HD800 sounds a touch cleaner, tighter before & after EQ. Have you heard the HD800/S? No offense to your current headphone collection (I have the HD6XX myself), but (here comes the offensive part) the HD800/s are way better than any of them, especially after EQ. I would say maybe not for things like EDM or Hip hop. I think as long as you have them amplified good (easy to accomplish) and you are in a situation where open back is doable, then you may find you won’t listen to those others much after hearing what the HD800/S are capable of.
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No offense at all! Although I think the SR2 are awesome.
I’ve not tried the 800s and comfort is a big factor. That’s kinda the kicker with high-end headphones. How can you buy something that is completely subjective? I know headphones.com has a generous return policy, but I own a small business too and HATE returns.
I don’t listen to hip-hop, mainly soundtracks, jazz, and vocals. But I do like my mid-bass. And I LOVE wide soundstages.
Decisions, decisions…
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Well you need to get them on your head, because they are the most comfortable headphones I have ever tried and as you may have heard, the soundstage is amazing. But they are very far from a ‘one trick pony’, especially if you are open to EQ.
I also run a small business and returns are in general 
So when I first saw their return policy I was like 
very impressive.
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I have had the HD800S long enough for them to burn in - about 400 hours - and use the Cardas Clear balanced cable with them. I use a convolution filter running in HQPlayer and the headset sounds perfect. There is ample clean low end as well as punch. I moved up from the HD660S. Sea change in sound staging.
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What they said. It’s not going to have as much slam as some other headphones because it doesn’t seal as well, but I’ve put a +5.5 low shelf @ 105hz with no issues.
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I recently obtained the HD800S, and I was also worried about the supposed lack of bass. It’s really not as bad as everyone makes it out to be imo, and this is coming from someone who uses a Sony Z1R on a frequent basis 
Since I’m also using them for gaming duty, I found that these things are absolute monsters after a proper EQ, and can deliver more than enough clean bass if you really want to bump them up.
The soundstage is so immersive for gaming. I even noticed this while playing some FH5 today.
For jazz and soundtracks (orchestral), they’re amazing. For more modern game soundtracks, they’re also great, but I’ve found that EQ really makes these come to life.
But again, they’re really not so bad without EQ so long as you have solid amplification.
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